Two weeks later - nearly to the day - Caden once again stepped off a plane from Tokyo to Seoul with only her carry-on and purse.  The past couple weeks had been a blur of government buildings and papers, mixed in with calls from the President which slowly made all of her belongings disappear from her apartment and reappear somewhere in Korea.  Caden had been pleasantly surprised when her former co-workers had put together a little going away party for her the night before, but she wasn't able to stay late, having an early morning flight to catch.

Now she was walking through the Seoul airport looking more or less exactly the same as she had the day she was mistakenly interviewed for the job.  She was wearing her professional clothing - a long sleeved white top and black slacks - with a spare in her bag, along with one casual outfit.  This was the entirety of what was left in her apartment the day she left Japan.  Every other belonging was apparently already waiting for her in the new apartment somewhere in the center of Seoul.

As Caden shuffled through the airport, she rubbed her eyes sleepily.  Despite having gotten into the habit of waking up early every morning to teach for the past few years, no one could accuse her of ever being (or ever likely to become) a morning person.  She yawned widely as she waded through a sea of black haired people, feeling short again for the first time since she left America.  Not that she was tall in any county, but at 5'1" she was at least the same height as most Japanese girls.

She walked outside, not sure how she would know which car was meant to pick her up.  She reached for her phone, planning to check to see if the President had called with more information when she spotted a well dressed man holding a sign with her name (only her first name) humorously misspelled, scrawled in English.  He was standing in front of a limo (admittedly not a stretch) and Caden realized that he was a chauffeur.  Slightly alarmed by this, she hovered for a moment before slowly making her way over to him.  He smiled when he saw her.

"Um, I'm Caden," she murmured, still rather unsure.  The man nodded enthusiastically.

"They told me you were a foreigner," he said in Korean. "Please forgive my English."  He gestured at the sign he was holding.  Caden smiled warmly at this. He seemed so nice.

"Only if you forgive my Korean," she countered good-naturedly.  The man laughed heartily, nodding.  Caden smiled back, then looked wistfully at the car.

"Um," she began, planning to ask why she was receiving such a lavish greeting, when the man interrupted,

"Oh yes.  Your company's president wanted me to tell you that everyone went down to the sea for a charity concert and are therefore unavailable to pick you up.  I've been given an address where I'm instructed to take you and I was also told to give you this number."

He handed her a piece of paper with a local phone number.  Caden took it carefully, looking down to cover up her look of slight contempt - of course it turned out that she only got special treatment as a last resort.  She rolled her eyes, almost lauging out loud at herself.  At least she had no reason to be freaked out by the fanciness anymore.  She smiled up at the driver now.

"Thank you for taking care of me," she said earnestly. "Let's be off.  After you."  The man returned her smile, nodding before opening the door for her.  Caden hopped into the back seat, settling in with her backpack beside her.

They left quickly and Caden was left to consider this new chapter in her life that she was starting.  After having her initial interactions with the members, she'd returned to Japan determined to quash any and all starstruck feelings.  When she wasn't running back and forth between government buildings and the American and Korean embassies in Japan getting all her paperwork together, she was watching every video of Big Bang she could find that showed them acting silly, grubby, and all around like normal people.  She didn't get starstruck by normal boys, no matter how gorgeous they were.

She stayed away from music videos, interviews, or photoshoots.  She listened to their music, so long as their faces weren't showing.  She decided that the same efforts needn't be made for 2NE1 - she didn't mind acting like a fan in front of the girls, if it came to that.  She felt much more confident, now that she was back in Korea, that she wouldn't fall prey to the same ridiculous behavior - especially since she wouldn't be surprised by their presence this time.

Still, as much as she tried not to recognize it, Caden couldn't help but feel a bit nervous.  She decided that it was alright to be a little nervous about moving to a new country and starting a whole new job.

The ride was a fairly short one - before she knew it the car stopped in front of a nice looking high rise apartment building.  The driver said goodbye politely.  Caden quickly crawled out of the car, grabbing her bags.  She waved to the driver and bowed before situating herself.  She glanced up at the building, unsure as to where she was meant to go.  She turned back to question the driver just in time to see him drive off.  She opened to call after him, but knew it was useless.

She sighed, looking around for a moment before remembering the phone number he had given her.  She pulled the piece of paper out of her pocket and unfolded it carefully.  There wasn't a name or any other information besides the number, so she had no idea who it belonged to.  She sighed again and pulled out her phone.  It seemed the President wasn't one to offer much information.

She dialed and nervously waited for the line to connect.  After three rings, a woman answered the phone.

"Hello, this is Park Minhae."

"Teacher Park," Caden said in Korean, surprised when she recognized the name.

"Caden ssi, I've been expecting to hear from you," the woman responded warmly in English. "Are you outside?"

"Oh... yes, I think so," Caden responded sheepishly, now in English. "That is, the chauffeur dropped me off in front of an apartment building..."  Teacher Park laughed.

"Okay, you should be here.  I'll come down to get you," she said before hanging up.  Caden did the same, left to wait.  She looked around at the rest of the street.  The apartment was right in the middle of the city, although there was a bike trail across the way, so there were only buildings on one side of the street.  Also, although she couldn't see any, the cool breeze and water smell told her that the river was also near - probably farther up the bike trail.

As she was gazing at passing cyclists, there came a voice from behind her,

"Caden ssi!"

Caden turned to find Teacher Park standing in front of the building, smiling at her.  She smiled back, walking over.

"How are you doing?" Teacher Park asked pleasantly. "These past few weeks were very busy for you, I'm sure."

"Yes, it was a lot of paperwork to sign in such a short amount of time," Caden replied, grinning. "I'm fine, thanks for asking.  How are you?"

"Very well," the woman replied enthusiastically. "There have been quite a few preparations made for your arrival over the past weeks.  Come, I'll show you to the room."  The two walked inside together and the first thing Teacher Park did was to introduce Caden to the staff behind the desk (in Korean).  They seemed to have been expecting her and greeted her warmly.  They had a few papers for her to sign, but most had already been taken care of by the President.  To Caden's great surprise, during one of his frequent update calls while she was still in Japan, the President had informed her that her board would be included as part of her payment for the sake of her being close to (and therefore always available for) the band.  

They said goodbye to the staff before Teacher Park lead her up the stairs.  On the way, she explained, once again in English, that she and Caden would be sharing the two bedroom apartment that she currently inhabited until she left the position in a month's time, at which point Caden would continue to occupy the apartment on her own.

By the time she'd explained all this, they had walked up four flights of stairs.  Teacher Park set a brisk pace and Caden -slim but apparently not fit - was huffing and puffing by the time they turned off, onto their floor.  She followed Teacher Park left from the stairs and straight down the corridor to apartment 408, where she had Caden punch in their door code (which was used in place of a key) so that she would remember it for later.  She had Caden use the code, close the door and use it again several times before they finally went inside.

She immediately lead Caden to a bedroom full of boxes she recognized, and furniture she didn't.

"This is your room," the woman announced pleasantly. "It's actually the bigger room - I originally shared the space with another staff member, but they moved her in with one of the groups a few years back and I've had it to myself ever since then.  I never cared enough about the extra space to move all of my things, so that'll be nice for you once I leave.

"All of your things seemed to have made it safely.  The President meant for you to take the day to unpack and get settled in.  Your first official day will begin tomorrow.  You'll shadow me in my duties for the remainder of my time here and take over officially once I leave.  Also, during my last month I will be working to expand your Korean until hopefully you get to a point of near fluency by the time I leave.  That will mean an intense regiment - let's speak well together in English today because starting tomorrow the only time either of us speak English together will be in the classroom."

She spoke that last sentence just as pleasantly as ever, but there was a new intensity in the way she spoke that Caden hadn't heard from her up until that point.  She could all but see the scary teacher aura emanating from her.  Caden's eyes widened slightly.  Teacher Park continued with a smile, intense aura receeded,

"So take your time and get settled in.  I'd be happy to help you unpack, so just call if you need me.  I'd like to treat you to dinner tonight to celebrate your new position and show you around the city a bit if you don't mind.  Just let me know when you're ready."

"That's very generous of you!" Caden exclaimed. "Are you sure it's not too much?"  Teacher Park batted the question away,

"I insist.  If you're going to take my place, I have to treat you well."

Caden smiled at this,

"In that case, thank you very much.  I'll be ready by dinner time."

Teacher Park smiled back before disappearing into her room.

Caden led herself on a quick tour around the apartment, finding the bathroom, kitchen, balcony, etc.  It was an extremely nice apartment - bigger even than the two of them probably needed to still be comfortable and huge for one person.  She sat down on the couch in the living room, testing it out.  She saw a few of Teacher Park's tutoring tools resting neatly about the room.  Finally she wandered back to her room.

Along with all of her boxes, the room was already furnished with a desk, small bookshelf, a set of drawers, and what appeared to be a queen sized bed.  This excited and bothered Caden at the same time because as much as she was thrilled to have a nice big bed, she only had sheets to fit a full.  She wandered over to the closet, which was a modest walk-in.

Having looked everything over, Caden quickly changed into the first grubby long sleeved shirt she found and a pair of comfy cotton work out shorts.  She tied her hair back into a haphazard ponytail.  The first thing she did was rearrange some of the furniture.  Once everything was situated to her liking, she started opening boxes.  She had labeled them to the best of her ability before they were shipped, in the hopes that she would remember where everything was, but alas - unpacking was always more difficult than she liked it to be.  She decided to start with clothes, then teaching equipment, and finally trinkets and just go from there.

Caden worked busily all morning unpacking.  Teacher Park stopped by her room after a few hours to inform her that she could eat any food in the kitchen for lunch - an offer that Caden took her up on very shortly thereafter.  By late afternoon she had gotten the bulk of her things unpacked and was now setting up her personal items and decorations.  She had left the door of her room open after having taken most of the now empty moving boxes and placing them into one of the utility closets, as suggested by Teacher Park - one or both of them would be able to use them again the next time they moved.

At the moment she was removing the shrink wrap from what Caden considered to be her most valuable belongings.  As always, she had hesitated to leave them in someone else's hands and ship them with the rest of her baggage.  Caden called them her Boards of Wonderment (well, only in her head).  They were four very large bulliten boards - three covered in pictures and trinkets and wrapped carefully in cling wrap, and one which was currently blank.

Each board contained memories from various points in her life.  The first she filled in her life up through high school, the second while she was in college, and the third from her time in Japan.  The fourth, currently blank, board she had added just the week before - leading up to her move to Korea.  Not wanting any of the pictures to be moved or lost, she had carefully wrapped them over in plastic wrap, requesting extra-special-careful transport (although that didn't always guarantee results) and it seemed that they made it over intact.

She unwrapped the boards one by one, from oldest to most recent - checking to make sure none of the pieces had gone missing.  She smiled, remembering all the fun times she'd had with friends and the cool places she's gone.  This was always her favorite part of unpacking.  She allowed herself to get lost in her memories for a while.

*     *     *

It was nearly 7:00pm by the time G Dragon finally made it back to his room after the benefit concert.  He had left it before 5 o'clock that morning and driven a total of 7 hours between then and now, and sat through 2 hours of preparation for a half hour performance.  He had loved every minute of it, but no one could blame him for feeling slightly exhausted.

The rest of the members had wandered of to their various residences, while he and Seungri shuffled tiredly into their own apartment.  Once inside, the maknae immediately proceeded to flop down on the couch and fall asleep.  Although GD understood the feeling, he didn't follow suit.  He had expected to get back slightly earlier, since they had performed around noon, but they had all decided to stay and watch most of 2NE1's performance at 4:00pm to show their support, since the girls had come  early to watch them.

Now he had to run over to return a book to Teacher Park and borrow a different one that he needed to study up on before their session with her the following morning.  It had been a while since they'd had a class and he had fallen a little behind on the self study he'd been assigned to do to stay on top.  He figured he'd run down to get the book while it was still a reasonable hour, then just go to sleep early tonight.  He quickly threw his things in his room and - still in his concert get-up - headed downstairs before he got too lazy or tired to do it.

He flew down six flights of stairs, hoping it would get his blood flowing and keep him energized for the studying he was about to do.  Even going down, six flights of stairs had him a little winded.  He took a second to catch his breath before knocking on the door of Teacher Park's apartment.  He knew the door code -as did all the members - but he never used it when their tutor was home.  It would be rude to just barge in on someone like that.  Besides, it could potentially lead to some awkward situations - maybe he'd be more willing to barge in if his tutor were male.

Only a few moments after he knocked, the door opened to reveal a smiling Teacher Park.

"Jiyong-ah," she began pleasantly, moving aside so he could come in. "What brings you here?  Getting ready for class tomorrow?"

"Hello, Teacher," he smiled, greeting her politely. "Yes, I came here to return your book and borrow the other one you suggested."

"Very good," she replied approvingly. "Stay here, I'll run and get it for you."  She took the book from his outstretched hand and disappeared through the kitchen and around the corner.

GD took to swinging his arms while he waited, glancing around the apartment.  He noticed the door to the bedroom down the short hall to his left was open and there was someone inside.  She was standing on the bed with her back to him, working diligently to mount a bulletin board full of pictures to the wall.  He noticed a few half full cardboard boxes and several pieces of clothing scattered about the floor.

Just as his brain was piecing all of this information together, the girl successfully attached the board to the wall.  She put her hands on her hips for a moment, appearing to gaze at it with satisfaction before bending down to pick up the next one.  As she did this, GD caught sight of the side of her face for a moment before the long hair from her ponytail - a distinctive red-blonde color that could only be produced naturally and was therefore an extreme rarity in Korea - cascaded  down her shoulder, covering her face.  It was then that he instantly realized who she was.

It had been two weeks since the new teacher had been hired.  Her absence, combined with his busy schedule had cause him to nearly forget about her - but now that he thought about it, he realized that she had been scheduled to return any day now.  She hadn't seemed to notice his arrival at all.  He watched as she flipped her hair out of her face and straightened up, holding the second board in her hands.

He didn't like the way his brain had chosen to view this action as if it were in slow motion, but he quickly shrugged it off.  He watched as she wrestled with this new board.  He couldn't help but notice that she was wearing a pair of rather small cloth shorts that left most of her legs bare and an oversized long sleeved shirt that revealed one shoulder and showed a bit of her back whenever she lifted her arms (which happened to be a lot during this process).  It felt strange, almost forbidden, seeing this much of someone who would become his teacher, but this sentiment didn't seem to be enough to urge him to turn away.

Since it was the middle of summer, she had devoloped a slight tan on her legs.  Unlike the girls he knew that tended to turn brown when tan, hers was an even golden glow.  Intrigued, he continued to gaze at her until a sudden voice startled him back to reality.

"Ah, I see you've noticed that your new tutor has arrived," said Teacher Park, glancing over at Caden before smiling pleasantly at him.  He was frustrated to feel his face burning.  'Why am I doing that?' he thought, angrily, 'There's nothing to be embarrassed about!  It's not as if I was doing anything wrong.'  He scowled at the floor, remembering why he'd taken a slight dislike to the new tutor - being around her always seemed to result in him being in a bad mood.

"I was told you've already met her once before," Teacher Park continued, seeming not to notice his foul mood. "Would you like to say hello before you go?"  GD smiled weakly, covering his annoyance as best he could.

"Actually, I'm in a bit of a hurry, teacher," he said, taking the book she had brought back for him. "I guess I'll just have to wait until next time."

"Alright," she responded brightly. "Good luck with studying. "I'll see you tomorrow bright and early."

"See you tomorrow," he replied, smiling.  He bowed before turning and hurrying out the door.  He shuffled listlessly to the elevator, stabbing the button for his floor.  When he got off, he stomped over to his apartment, flinging the door open, and stomping inside.  Seungri appeared to have woken up from his nap and was now heading toward the shower with a towel around his neck.

"Whoa, hyung, what's wrong with you?" he asked bluntly when GD stormed past him.

"Nothing!" GD snarled. "And talk to your elders with more respect."

"Sorry, I was just trying to see what's wrong, jeez," Seungri replied, just as bluntly, wandering off to the bathroom.  GD sighed before marching into his room and closing the door firmly behind him.  He knew that he probably shouldn't be so bothered - which in turn bothered him even more.  He didn't have a clue why, but for some reason that girl made everything go haywire and he didn't like it.  He decided that he didn't particularly care for her and that was all there was to it.

With that, he promptly forgot about everything but studying before he finally passed out.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A/N

There - an extra long chapter to make up for the short one from yesterday. :D

And look!  Another member finally makes a cameo.  :P  We'll be seeing more of the other members from now on.

Anyway, I hope you like it.  Next update will be within a couple days. :D

I'd like to keep up this chapter posting momentum, but I know that as soon as I'm caught up to where I've written, it's going to slow down quite a bit. :P

Comment and subscribe as desired!  It's always appreciated. :D